As Semele died, Zeus took her almost-born child and brought him to be raised by nymphs in a particularly lush, verdant land. She asked to see him in all his glory as the King of Heaven, and although Zeus knew that it would kill her to see him this way, he held to his word. Zeus was madly in love with a mortal, Semele, and he promised her that he would do anything for her. In these months, Demeter grieves and the earth goes through winter.ĭionysus, son of Zeus and a mortal Theban princess, is the only god whose parents were not both divine. But because Persephone does eat the pomegranate seed, she must return to the Underworld for four months a year. With her daughter back, Demeter leaves her temple and joins the other gods on Mount Olympus. Hades knows he must agree to Zeus’s terms, but he gives Persephone a pomegranate seed, knowing that if she eats it she will have to return to him. Finally, Zeus intervenes by telling Hermes to go down to the underworld and bring Persephone back. The earth, meanwhile, freezes to a bitter cold that threatens mankind’s extinction. In this temple, far removed from the other gods in Olympus, Demeter sits in longing for her daughter. Demeter then sheds her disguise and demands that the people of the town build her a temple. When Metaneira discovers Demeter putting her son in the fire, she becomes irate. At night, Demeter attempts to grant Metaneira’s son immortal youth by secretly anointing the boy with ambrosia and placing him in a hot fire. Grief-stricken and confused, Demeter withholds her gifts from the world, which becomes “a frozen desert.” She comes down to human beings in the form of an elderly woman and is taken in by a woman named Metaneira. Hades, god of the Underworld, kidnaps Persephone and brings her down to be his wife in the Underworld. Demeter, goddess of the corn and harvest, has one daughter, Persephone, the maiden of spring.
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